Back in 2006 I decided to cook all 1293 recipes in "The Gourmet Cookbook." It took a few years, but I made them all! Now I have moved on to the over 1100 recipes in "Gourmet Today." I anticipate several more years of kitchen fun!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

This one was on the list from the random number generator. I have to admit I was skeptical about pie whose filling both contained beef suet and was supposed to rot in the fridge for up to three months before putting it in the pie. And as I suspected, this pie was not good. The filling just wasn't tasty. If you love dried fruit and booze, perhaps this is the pie for you. I did not find it appealing though. The flavor wasn't terrible, but the texture of the filling was not appetizing. Imagine filling a pie with slightly rehydrated raisins and you basically have the idea. On the up side, the pie was very pretty and the crust was delicious. Matt and I shared one whole piece of pie and then resorted to just eating the crust off the rest of the pie...

I can't resist posting a picture of the amazing (READ: appalling) thing that happened to my friend's car this week. His car was (legally) parked on the street in Somerville and this is what happened to it. Yes, that is a hole in his car. You might ask yourself: how is that even possible? Clearly one car could not do that to another car. But you know what could? A garbage truck. The damage is actually much more extensive than is shown on the picture. The truck practically tore off the front bumper of his car too. And (my personal favorite part), they didn't leave a note. Seriously, who does that? When we went to the police station yesterday to file a police report, the officer's reaction was, "Oh that happened to my wife's car too." Wow.

I once made Christmas pudding, but didn't let it rest for three months while I poured booze over it, so it wasn't very good. I made one with butter and one with some sort of fat if not suet. My mom had a bite of the latter and said it was the vilest thing she had ever tasted, but I think it was just her imagination.

It was definitely my feeling that you couldn't pick out any "beefy" flavor in the mincemeat from the suet. The recipe claimed that it added "earthiness." The idea of baking with animal fats bothers me not at all, but letting pie filling rot in the fridge for three months before eating it seems like a less good idea.